


cracked

by stardustgirl



Series: Full-length Fics [16]
Category: Star Wars: Darth Vader (Comics), Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: (had to get all the torture tags outta the way now for the others), Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe, Angst, Child Abuse, Dark Ezra Bridger, Ezra Bridger Needs a Hug, Ezra doesn’t like the Jedi, Hurt Ezra Bridger, Implied/Referenced Torture, Inquisitor Ezra Bridger, Jedi, Order 66, Post-Order 66, Power Dynamics, Psychological Torture, SO MUCH SADNESS, Someone Save This Poor Child, That's Not How The Force Works, The Force, Torture, Young Ezra Bridger, as in they’re referenced, bc they’re dead, but thats a minor issue, heavy heavy angst, hes only like 11 in this, like at all, please, someone help him, well kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2020-10-29 03:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20789894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: It’s easy to break a child.Written in journal entry-esque vignettes.





	1. Day One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dessa/gifts).

> Dessa wanted me to make a continuation of powerful, so I did.
> 
> (This starts a couple of days after powerful ended.)

“Here are your quarters.”

It’s just a room, he thinks. Almost the same as the cell, except with an actual door this time.

“If you do well, you might get something better later. You haven’t earned it yet,” the temple guard says.

“Are you reading my mind?”

His savior huffs. “I think you know the answer to that.”

The guard leaves him to the room.


	2. Day Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Child Abuse, Hypothetical Non-consensual Medical Operations

He wakes up in a med bay.

He starts to sit up until something pulls at his wrists. Glancing down, he sees cuffs.

He starts struggling more.

He’s not sure how long it is when a door at the far end finally opens and a tall Pau’an walks in. Instinctively, he knows that he’s the temple guard, even without the mask.

The man stops beside the medical cot, folding his arms and staring down.

“Why am I cuff—“

A hand whips out, slapping him before he can say another word. “Your first lesson is to learn _ silence _ and _ deference,_” the man says.

He nods.

“The Jedi had their issues. Lack of discipline was a primary one,” the guard intones, raising a brow ridge as he looks down at him. “Clearly, that will be the _ first _ thing to fix with you.”

He swallows.

“You’re staying here, while they prep you for tracker insertion and finish...repairing you.” The disgust is palpable, and for the first time since the group of old Jedi first set eyes on him in the tower, he feels ashamed of his years on the streets and the various injuries he earned as a result. “You’ll begin formal training afterward.”

The guard leaves.

He wonders why they need to fix the fact that he speaks.


	3. Day Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Referenced Child Abuse, Referenced Electrocution

He hasn’t spoken since the third day.

He still remembers the temple guard tightening the collar around his neck, remembers the man leaving without an explanation.

Remembers trying to answer one of his questions later and getting shocked until he realized speaking was the issue.

The Pau’an walks into his room, face expressionless. He pulls back against the wall on the durasteel bunk, swallowing hard.

“Are you settling in?”

There’s no real meaning to the question, he knows—it’s to test whether or not he’ll speak.

He responds the way he’s supposed to.

He shrugs silently, gaze dropping.

“I’m glad you’re learning, boy.”

The man leaves, and he hears the click of the lock behind him.


	4. Day Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Referenced Child Abuse

He started  _ actual _ training a week ago.

He’s now decided that he  _ really _ doesn’t like lightsabers, especially not when he ends nearly every day with a tapestry of burns across his upper back and shoulders.

The collar always remains untouched.

Now, the guard is drilling him on shields. He’s supposed to leave a back door, of sorts, for someone he trusts; the man looks at him carefully with a dark gaze when he says that.

He trusts no one. No one still  _ alive, _ at least.

So he doesn’t make a back door for his shields.


	5. Day Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Implied Child Abuse

The guard finds out he didn’t make a back door for his shields.

By the end of the day, the man’s forced one into his shields, and he’s left to curl up and cry himself to sleep on the floor of his cell.


	6. Day Sixty-seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Electrocution of a Child

He meets the others over two months in.

He doesn’t like the Mirialan woman right off the bat. She gives off a bad  _ something, _ and it makes him shift uncomfortably when she leans in close, murmuring to another of the newcomers, “I didn’t know they allowed  _ children _ in.”

He tries to tell her that she’s wrong, that he’s  _ not _ a child, but he only gets shocked as a result and she laughs.

The others join her.

“This is the Fourteenth Brother,” the Pau’an announces, approaching the group. He flinches backward in deference, risking a quick glance up before looking down again and whimpering softly.

“Was he a Padawan?”

“A prisoner, actually,” the Pau’an drawls, watching as he ducks his head. “Convicted of stealing from Skywalker himself.”

“Then why are we bothering to train him? Just send him back to the detention block,” says the Mirialan.

“He has the Force. Can’t do much yet; he’s still learning shielding.”

A tall humanoid from behind snorts in disgust, and he turns slightly. “Pathetic,” the man sneers.

He shudders.

“What’s the collar for?” another asks.

“He has a bit of a mouth on him.”

“He certainly does,” the Mirialan murmurs. One of the others laughs.

He doesn’t like them.


	7. Day One Hundred and Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two days late but y’all are fine with that right
> 
> TW: Implied Mental Breakdown, Implied/Referenced Electrocution of a Child

They’re all talking, talking talking talkingtalkingtalking _ talking _ and it’s making his head spin, he just wants it to  _ stop, _ wants  _ them _ to stop—

The shocks are so bad he has to go to the med bay after. He doesn’t yell at them anymore, even when he thinks he hears them speaking.

The Seventh Sister assures him that they weren’t, and that he is insane.

The Grand Inquisitor only gives him a careful glance before leading him away.


	8. Day One Hundred and Twelve

He hates this.

He hates the training, hates the lightsabers, hates  _ her, _ hates the Grand Inquisitor, hates hates  _ hates _ the Force.

And he still hasn’t even met their master.


	9. Day One Hundred and Eighteen

He can still feel everything: their pain, their triumph, the twisted satisfaction she gets from watching him squirm when she makes a comment about him in training.

He can still feel the lights, only, there’s barely any now, and the ones that aren’t here on Coruscant are scattered elsewhere.

He wants to throw up sometimes because of it.

They’ve all made it very clear just how insane he is because of this.

Except the Pau’an.


	10. Day One Hundred and Twenty-Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Implied Torture of Child

He tries to take his collar off.

He is punished.

He wants to leave it on now.


	11. Day One Hundred and Thirty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Suicidal Thoughts (not acted upon)

He wants to die.

And he would, except he’s worried what will happen if he fails.


	12. Day One Hundred and Seventy-two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Implied Past Torture

He hasn’t spoken in two and a half months now.

His throat burns too much from the last time to try.


	13. Day One Hundred and Seventy-four

If she says one more word to him, he’s going to kriffing kill someone.


	14. Day One Hundred and Eighty-nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Torture of a Child, Electrocution of a Child, Referenced Death of Parents

“No. You’re not training. Not yet.”

Confused, he follows the Grand Inquisitor out of his cell—_quarters—_and down the hall. The Pau’an stops outside a door, palming it open and striding inside. He follows in silence, sitting on the durasteel bunk when the Pau’an gestures to it. The man turns to the droid in the corner, clearing his throat.

“Make him presentable. I’ll be back to retrieve him in an hour.”

The droid whirs to life and he jumps, swallowing hard. However, when the Pau’an returns his attention to him, he flinches back.

“Relax, boy. Stay still.”

He tries to, unable to keep from trembling slightly as the man’s fingers find his throat. They move around to the buckle and undo it, ripping it away from his throat. He reaches a hand up to rub it, swallowing hesitantly. He doesn’t even mind the pain the prongs left now that the familiar pressure and threat are gone.

“The same rules apply as when you took it off yourself: if I even _hear_ of you trying to speak, I will find a much more permanent solution.” He nods. “I will return.” The man leaves.

The Grand Inquisitor, true to his word, returns later, thankfully with no sign of the collar. He follows the man out and into a repulsorlift, trying not to fidget in the silent wait as it goes up. Finally, _finally,_ it reaches the chosen level, and the pair steps out. He follows the Pau’an down a long hall, trying not to look too closely at the red-robed guards blocking the door at the end.

“I am the Grand Inquisitor,” he announces as they come to a halt in front of the guards.

“And the boy?”

“The Fourteenth Brother. You will find the Emperor is awaiting us.”

Several long minutes pass before one of the guards finally steps back, the other following suit only seconds behind. They key open the door.

He follows the Pau’an in, and can’t help a soft whimper at the sudden rush of cold dread. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches the Pau’an shooting him a glance.

_Quiet, boy._

He gives a small, quick nod in acknowledgement.

They stop about twenty meters from a tall, shadowed throne, and the Pau’an falls to one knee with his head bowed. He only hesitates a moment before copying the man, figuring that it’s better to show more deference rather than less.

“You may rise,” a gravelly voice announces from the shadows. He waits until the Grand Inquisitor does, and even then keeps his head down, swallowing hard. “Is this the boy?”

“Yes, Master,” the Pau’an says.

“Come closer.” Somehow, he instinctively knows that the man means him. He walks forward, still keeping his gaze fixed on the floor. “Stop.” He obeys. “Tell me, boy, when did you first learn of the Force?”

He twists his head around to look back at the Pau’an, eyes wide with uncertainty. The Grand Inquisitor nods, and he turns back around, swallowing before speaking. “My par– parents me– mentioned it to me– they mentioned it to me when I w– was young. I...I didn’t hear of it again unt– until they br– br– brought me to Cor– Coruscant.” His voice is rough with disuse, a swatch of lace dragging against duracrete and catching every few seconds. And that’s not even mentioning how much it just _hurts_ to speak.

He gets no warning when the electricity hits him and instead just lets out a soundless cry, body spasming as he collapses to his knees and curls up. The energy lets off after only a few seconds, but he doesn’t risk uncurling.

“You will address me as _Master,_ boy. Am I understood?”

He nods jerkily, still curled.

“Get up.”

He finds himself obeying again, though this time he tries to stay perfectly still upon rising, even as he feels the man’s eyes roam over him. He hasn’t felt like this since he stood before the Jedi in the tower.

_The Jedi are dead._

“And where are your parents?”

“De– dead, Master. In the– in the war.”

“Hmm.” The man, still hidden in the shadows, falls silent. He shifts, uncomfortable, and swallows again.

When the shadowed man finally speaks again, it’s more to the Grand Inquisitor than him. “You have permission to peruse the Temple archives. Only you, and you alone.”

“What do you want done with the boy, Master?”

“I need to speak to him alone. Now, go.”

The Grand Inquisitor nods and exits, shooting him a last glance. He shivers.

“Now, tell me, child,” the shadowed man begins again, “what do you know of sensing other beings with the Force?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it y’all! Subscribe to the series because I may have another surprise up my sleeve ;) A HUGE thank you goes out to Dessa for helping me continue this so much, and to the Phoenix Nest Discord for their continued support.


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